Putin To Meet With Leaders Of Armenia, Azerbaijan In Sochi

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinin arrives in Sochi on October 31.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is due to host talks with the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan on October 31, a month after the worst clashes erupted between the Caucasus neighbors since they fought a bloody war in 2020.

Putin's hosting of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev also comes eight months into Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

The meeting, taking place in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, was proposed by Putin.

The Kremlin said the talks will focus on the implementation of agreements reached under Moscow's mediation last year and on "further steps to strengthen stability and security" in the region.

Putin will also hold bilateral talks with each leader, the Kremlin said.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked in a conflict over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh for years. Armenian-backed separatists seized the mainly Armenian-populated region from Azerbaijan during a war in the early 1990s that killed some 30,000 people.

The two sides fought another war in 2020 that lasted six weeks and killed thousands of people on both sides before a Russia-brokered cease-fire, resulting in Armenia losing control over parts of the region, which is part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent districts.

Under the cease-fire Moscow deployed about 2,000 troops to the region to serve as peacekeepers.

Ahead of the talks, Pashinian said he was "ready" to extend the Russian peacekeepers' presence by up to another two decades at the Sochi talks.

"I am prepared to sign a document in Sochi extending the peacekeepers' mandate for 10, 15, or 20 years," Pashinian said on October 29, according to Russian agencies.

Last month, 286 people were killed in a flare-up of the conflict.

With reporting by AFP